The high casuistic of abdominal disturbs in equine, and the knowledge that paracentesis is an efficient technique, simple and safe for the animal, result that the analysis of the peritoneal fluid becomes an important aid for diagnosis and clinical orientation in individual cases. As in Brazil there are no reference values for peritoneal fluid evaluation for working horses, this work intends to provide some values for that category of animals. Sixty healthy working horses, from the Metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil were used. The animals were maintained in the Veterinary Hospital of the Veterinary School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais - Brazil, kept under the same nutricional and environmental conditions. Abdominal paracentesis was performed to obtain a sample in three aliquots: with EDTA, with sodium citrate and without anticoagulant substance. The aliquot without anticoagulant was subdivided to prepare smears in glasses to make leukocyte differentiation, cytological examination and total protein determination. In the aliquot with sodium citrate was determined fibrinogen and in the one with EDTA was made total leukocytes count. The results were Total Leukocytes/mul 3567± 3280; Neutrophils 51.6±23.3%; Eosinophils3.0±8.5%; Basophils 0.1 ±0.35%; Lymphocytes 10.5±10.6%; Mononucleated Cells 33.8±25.3%; Total Protein g/dl 1.2±0.6 and Fibrinogen g/dl 0.05±0.015.
paracentesis; peritoneal fluid; equine; biochemistry
